Tuesday, January 25, 2011

Someone forwarded this to me quite awhile ago and I want to share it with others. It shows how a horizontal well is drilled. Northen Oil and Gas Inc made it. It only takes a couple of minutes to watch but it shows and explains so much. You can tell this was made so that anyone could understand how an oil well is drilled horizontally. I really like this video and have watched it a couple of times. (I couldn't figure out how to download the video just the link).
I've been interested in horizontal wells because of the Haynesville shale. The Haynesville shale is a big gas play that is going on in my area, and is something I like to follow. One of these days I'll get around to writing more about the shale.

Monday, January 24, 2011

I went to Ohio for a reunion. While I was headed toward the reunion on 11-11, I decided to stop and see the Serpent_Mound area ( Wikipedia did a good job discussing it so I've included the link). I hadn't seen this area in over 30 years and I was curious if it had changed any from the way I remember it. I had always found it an absolutely fascinating place to visit. Most of it was as I recalled it. They still had the visitor center only it was closed for the winter. The signs had also been updated. The biggest difference I recall is now there is an observation deck. The other thing that was very nice was along the path they now have markers so you know where North, South, East, and West are. Also they show where the sunrise and sunsets are for the equinoxes and things along the path. The other thing I really liked was it was in the late fall and a lot of the leaves had already fallen thus I was able to see more. In the past the heavy vegetation covered the surrounding hills and you couldn't view very much of the surrounding area.

A few of my pictures -
SERPENT MOUND:

Here's the view from the parking lot and visitor center.

The path to walk around the mound

The observation deck so you can now look down upon the mound

One of the signs along the paths

Another sign on the path

Observing serpent mound from the observation deck

Observing the mound from the ground near the head.

I thought it would be neat how the Indian would observe the sun in certain

positions to know when to plant

Summer Solstice Sunset view

View of the valley below with Brush Creek

The northern view

While I was there the one thing that has always struck me about the place was how quiet and peaceful it is. I was surprise there were as many people there as there where, because it is an out of the way place and you pretty much have to want to go there to find it. Whenever I've gone before there were never a lot of people there. I thought with it being the off season and the visitor center/ museum being close there would be even few people than normal. I was wrong. It was explained to me that a lot of them had come for the nighttime show, because it was 11-11of the 2011th year; (To them it's a sacred night). Whenever there is special day like that the museum staff have talks for people to attend.

I enjoyed my visit and thought that would be it for the my visit to Serpent Mound. When I went to my reunion I was delighted to see a student had been doing his thesis on the faulting in the Serpent mound area. He explained to me that he was investigating the possibility of the rise in the area being due to an impact crater ( Serpent_Mound_crater). He had some evidence to support it. It really got me thinking about this stuff again because this was all so new to me. Now I wished I had hiked around some of the valleys to see if I could have seen any of this faulting that was described. I do know a couple of years ago I went to the meteor Crater in Arizona. I wonder how the two compare to each other. Now I have something new to muse upon and makes me want to find my pictures from that Arizona trip.

Added 4-10-2011
I was looking at the blog Outside the Interzone and saw this map as to why Lockwood likes Oregon over Ohio. But what caught my eye is the way there was the impact crater at Serpent Mound highlighted.
I don't know where he got the maps but I'm including it here.Lockwood's Outside the Interzone post
This is the geology I grew up with...

Saturday, January 22, 2011

Someone emailed this to me and wanted me to pass it on to other women that are my friends. As a rule I do not go in for chain letters but this moved me and I thought worth sharing.

ONE FLAW IN WOMEN
(author unknown)

Women have strengths that amaze men....
They bear hardships and they carry burdens,
but they hold happiness, love and joy.
They smile when they want to scream.
They sing when they want to cry.
They cry when they are happy
and laugh when they are nervous.
They fight for what they believe in.
They stand up to injustice.
They don't take "no" for an answer
when they believe there is a better solution.
They go without so their family can have.
They go to the doctor with a frightened friend.
They love unconditionally.
They cry when their children excel
and cheer when their friends get awards.
They are happy when they hear about
a birth or a wedding.
Their hearts break when a friend dies.
They grieve at the loss of a family member,
yet they are strong when they
think there is no strength left.
They know that a hug and a kiss
can heal a broken heart.
Women come in all shapes, sizes and colors.
They'll drive, fly, walk, run or email you
to show how much they care about you.
The heart of a woman is what
makes the world keep turning.
They bring joy, hope and love.
They have compassion and ideas.
They give moral support to their
family and friends.
Woman have vital things to say
and everything to give....
HOWEVER, IF THERE IS ONE FLAW IN WOMEN,

Friday, January 14, 2011

In November I was able to go to Ohio for a short visit. The purpose was a reunion of my Geology department to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first masters being awarded there at Ohio University. I looked forward to going seeing as how I had gotten both my BS and MS from that department. I had a great time, and took some pictures of Athens, Ohio. I even got to go on a field trip, which I plan to write up at another time.
Since I was in Ohio I had to swing on up north to visit my family. While I was there, I borrowed some of my families old family photos. I had been wanting to scan these into the computer for the longest time so that they could be shared with my siblings. Well I finally got them done and was able to bring them back to my mom, when I went back for a longer visit for Christmas.

When I wrote my piece for Accretionary Wedge - 27 I thought of all the wonderful things I saw. I was surprised we had as many photos of that time as we did when I went through the family pictures. I remember they were taken by my sister who took them on her girls scout 'brownie' camera she had gotten years before the trip. It was a very cheap camera, and only took roles of 12 pictures. I remembered we lost a couple of the roles because they were in a bag and someone through it out as trash - so there were whole sections of the trip that were missing. I remembered wanting to take more pictures but it seemed like it was so expensive to buy the film and have it develop back then so my parents didn't want to waste film as they called it and limited the number to just one or two of each place. Also for the longest time the pictures were not properly stored in an album or storage box. A lot of them had faded and were ruin, but yet some of them still made it today. None of them were labeled and were out of order -- so I am going on my memories of that time, (they may be wrong since it was quite a few years ago.) They were fun to see. So here are some of the photos of that trip taken back in August of 1965.

I think this was Souix Falls in South Dakota

Dinosaur park, Rapid City? South Dakota

The badlands South Dakota

The badlands South Dakota

Mount Rushmore National Memorial, South Dakota

Falls at Yellowstone National Park

Old Faithful at Yellow stone National Park. I remembered this picture was taken on August 25, 1965 because it was my best friend's birthday and I wanted to be at his party and not there. Now I'm so glad I was there seeing Old Faithful because I have always remembered it and I wonder if I would have remembered that party like I did Old Faithful. Now I am sure he was glad I was seeing Old Faithful because when I came back I told him all about it. Later in life he became a geologist too.

Old Faithful at Yellowstone National Park - 8-25-1965

I remembered being scared seeing this bear and was just glad I was in the car and not out of it. I remembered the rangers telling us not to feed the bears since they were wild. We called him Yogi after Yogi the bear which was a popular cartoon series at the time.

Buffalo at Yellowstone. I remember my brother getting out of the car to take this shot and one of the male buffalo's decided to charge him. We were so glad there was a barbed wire fence between us and the buffalo, but felt like it really wouldn't be much if the buffalo kept on coming. We didn't stay long at that location.

My first view of the Pacific Ocean. I know we went to Portland first after coming there following the Columbia River gorge. I remember seeing the salmon steps and found watching the salmon run so fascinating. I couldn't find any of those pictures or the pictures of Portland. I really don't know where this is on the coast, but I do feel like it was in Oregon.

We did go up to Puget Sound - Washington. I thought that was such a funny name a had trouble spelling it, but it always stuck with me. This might be a picture of that area or it might also be where the Columbia river goes into the ocean. I know we stayed a day in both locations.

We spent a couple of days in San Francisco, California and of course we had to ride the trolley.

We also had to take the tour of the bay on a boat. I thought it was so neat to have been able to go over and under the Golden Gate bridge.

This was my favorite picture of the whole trip. I am 9 years old (soon to turn 10) at the time and am in the lower right hand side. Here I was collecting a rock sample for my mom. Originally I thought this picture was taken when we were seeing the Snake River in Idaho, but now I think it was in Sierra Nevada range

This was always my mom's favorite picture. It was taken of all of us. We were at Yosemite National Park. I do remember Yosemite as being my most favorite spot that we visited during the whole trip.

Lake Mead, Nevada - looking at it from the Hoover Dam.

Grand Canyon National park, Arizona. This was second most favorite places to visit. I think I didn't care so much for it as Yosemite because I was afraid at looking down and seeing how deep the canyon really was.

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona. I just remember us driving and then stopping and getting out and looking and then getting in the car again and driving for what seem like forever only to stop and see more of the canyon. I could not believe how big and long it was. I was so impressed with it. I could not believe that it was formed from the Colorado river eroding it away. I thought for sure there had to have been a big machine to help it at one time. Back then I had no concept of the geologic time and how long the river was able to work on it. I do recall when I got home I went to the library and got some National geographic out to read more about it. That was the first time I looked up anything geologic in nature.

Mesa Verde National Park, Colorado. Before we got to this place I remembered us stopping off at the four corners - where Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah meet. I thought it was so neat to be able to stand in four states at the same time. I couldn't find that picture but I know we took some. By then I was getting home sick and just wanted to get back home. I know all of us were feeling that way.

But then we stopped here and I was fascinated by this things I was seeing again. It amazed me that Indians could build a place like this to live in. What impressed me more than anything was how big it was and how many people who must have lived there at one time. After that for the longest time I wanted to be an archeologist so I could study places like this more. I took my first geology class to help me with archeology but after that class I could never go back to archeology and just kept with the geology.

I don't know why this picture was in with this group because as I recalled we then saw some caves which might have been the Carlsbad Caverns, New Mexico. Then we headed to Denver and Pikes peak- again no pictures of either one. But this looks like The Alamo in San Antonio, Tx. But it could have been a mission house built in a similar fashion to the alamo that we saw along the way. By then I really wasn't paying much attention to where we were going. I was dreading going back home because as soon as we were to get back school would be starting. I wanted to keep on traveling hoping I would be able to miss some school if we did. I thought this stuff was so much more educational and I thought I would only make a trip like this once in my lifetime and thus should see as much of the United States as I could. Finally we did get home on Labor day. I remembered I hated that the next day school started and I didn't miss a day of school.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

At Christmas time I was able to go to the Cleveland Ohio area for a visit. I am originally from the area and still have a lot of family there. This is really rare for me since it is a busy time of year for my husbands work. This year was different for two reasons. The schools had off the week before Christmas and Christmas was on Saturday. We decided if we went the week before Christmas, my husband could still be there for the end of the year crunch. So I drove up.
When I go to Ohio, I like to stay at house my family owns that is on Lake Erie. Shortly before my dad got the illness, that he died from, he and my mom bought this duplex on Lake Erie in Madison Ohio for a retirement home. My brother was to have the top part and my parents the bottom. After my dad was gone my mom remarried and moved out, but still kept it in case she needed to move back since her new husband was in his 80's. Since then my brother also got married and moved out too when he and his wife had children. My mom rents out the top half to cover the expenses of it. I come from a large family and it is hard for us to all be together at one time. Having the extra room makes it easier for more of us to visit at the same time, thus another reason for keeping it.

I love looking at Lake Erie. The Lake is always so different every time I go and visit there. I never know what to expect. Sometimes it can be so still there is hardly a wave on it at all. Then there are other times when there are constant waves like the ocean. Sometimes they can get to be very big and nasty. I always look forward to how the lake will be while I am there.

This is how it normally looks with some waves crashing on the shore.

Nov 15 2010 - looking to the east

But some days can be really calm and others can be really rough.
A calm day

Sunset on Lake Erie when the lake was calm and the waves small (June 2008)

vs a rough day

Sept. 30 2009 Sometimes the waves get rough

Sept 2009

This year it was so neat because while I was there it was below freezing the whole time. I got to watch the ice form on the edges of it. Each day I would go out and take pictures because it would change so much from day to day. I would do it in the morning around 9-11 am so it would be around the same time each day. This made sure I had something for everyday before I would go visit family and friends.

12-19-2010

12-20-2010 A nice thin layer has formed and no waves are noticeable

12-23-2010; It only got above freezing for a couple of hours but
it amazed me how the ice seem to have broken up so quickly.
My brother says it always amazed him how 'ice rafts' would
break away and be gone the next day or float in on other days.

Dec 24, 2010

!2-25-2010
The first set is looking from in the same direction to the east. But that wasn't as spectacular as the stuff when you just looked straight out but there were no reference points and it was hard to see things. So I'm including a variety of angles so you can get a better feel of how spectacular this stuff really was to me.

I felt like there was so much more to comprehend than just viewing the east so here are some more looking straight out to the lake or slightly to the west and to the public boat launch. But first here is a map showing where the pictures are taken. Follow Rt 528, Madison up to the lake to the public boat launch site, symbolized by the little boat.
(These photos are taken at about 41 50' 19.53"N & 81 02' 43.00"W at an ele 583')

Delmore Atlas & Gazetter - Ohio (2010) pg 26

Nov 15, 2010 Lake Eire - notice the level of the water

Nov 2008 - Note that the lake did not freeze this time.

12-19-10

12-19-10

12-20-10 Here you can see the ice raft has come in and new
ice is forming - joining the two together.

About Me

About this blog

I consider myself a Rockdawg (A USA southern Rockhound / amateur geologist). Studying geology is a passion of mine even though I haven't worked as a professional geologist in a long time.

I also love to travel & wander around, looking at things, then wondering about it's geological applications to the things I see and sharing it with others.

I believe 'A picture is worth a thousand words'. Since I'm not the best at writing, I take a lot of photo's and let my original photos and images speak for themselves.I also believe in leaving the rocks where they are so others can enjoy them too and try to disturb them as little as possible - taking images to me is the best way to look at them besides being there yourself however if I do want a special rock or specimen I try to obtain it through legitimate means.

I do like to stay current on things and any insight you may have when I'm wrong is always appreciated since its been awhile since I've studied geology and things have changed.

Feel free to leave comments -- I enjoy hearing from other people.

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